TOFURKEY PEPPERJACK MELT Restaurant Ready! Go for it! Now there’s a prefect sandwich melt without grilling the bread. Who would have thought to melt the meat and cheese separately? Me!! And it worked! Makes 1 sandwich

I don’t know why more burger and sandwich joints, especially the smaller ones, don’t use pretzel buns for their burgers. I get mine from a food service store and they contain no animal products. Although they do cost a little more than the cheaper variety that most burger and sandwich joints use, the difference in…

Most spreadable cashew cheeses have pretty much the same consistency, though flavors and other textures may vary. One drawback that I’ve noticed is their incompatibility with wheat crackers. Spread it on a wheat cracker, take a bite, chew and notice what happens. By itself, the cheese tastes and textures great. Put it on a wheat…

Go back to the drawing board. Why is it that when somebody gets into the dairy replacement manufacturing business, they have to do it all? Do you really think that cheese makers or milk sellers around the globe take that kitchen sink approach to products they intend to sell? No. They don’t. How many dairies…

Eleven Days After The Fall – when Big Foot (the scale) tripped me in the bathroom in the middle of the night and the bathtub sucker-punched me. This is the first day I went out absent the face make-up. You know that “It” make-up for people with blemishes or rosebuds or scars or uneven coloring…

DELIGHT SOY CHICKEN SALAD A perfect soy chicken mixed with celery, onion, carrot and walnuts. Seasoned with sage and coriander. Mixed with fresh cilantro and JUST MAYO. Makes a delightful vegan chicken salad for salad boats or sandwich or on an open-face French baguette appetizer topped with a dill cornichon pickle slice and a spot…

Yep, you guessed it – contains no animal products. Guess the liquor industry finally got wind of the truth about vegans, they like to drink! Ever see those perfume ads in swanky magazines where you pull back the fold and you can smell the scent of the fragrance being advertised? Well, leave it to Captain…

GLUTEN FREE DAIRY FREE VEGAN Well, it finally got to Cleveland, courtesy of a bartender friend who likes to try vegan stuff and pushed for it. Dairy-based Baileys has cream and egg in it, so of course the original is going to be thicker and richer tasting than the almond milk version of Baileys. Still,…

When Steve brought these cookies home I have to say that I was shocked that the maple cremes were in fact vegan. The ginger snaps I assumed were and of course they were. But the maple cremes? Wow, now this is nice I thought. And I was not disappointed. Although the ginger snaps were like…

PLANT MEAT PATE You can say it tastes like any animal you like. It’s still plant meat, and that’s the way hundreds of millions of people all over the globe prefer their meat – from a plant! Enjoy the brilliance of plants that provide what they were intended to provide – nourishment and pleasure! Makes…

I can’t say enough good things about this oil. Thank you for coming into my life for starters. Check out some recipes using Thrive Algae Oil here: https://fat-freechef.com/category/thrive-algae-oil/ BAKED VEG CHEESE AND VEAL CANNELLONI We use the other white plant meat for this fine American-Italian casserole. Veg veal! I think I’ve had veal once or twice…

ORGANIC CHICKPEA PUFFS VEGAN WHITE CHEDDAR I’ve been meaning to try these puffs, when lo and behold they’re staring me right in the face at Starbuck’s coffee shop just after I had a discussion with the barista about when they’d be getting vegan products in. Guess she didn’t know she had these either, or maybe…

In some locations around the country Starbuck’s coffee is beginning to sell some vegan food items. At one such location in Cleveland, Ohio Steve found these Super Food Bites. COCONUT COOKIES made by emmy’s ORGANICS. Wow, I thought, just when a lady at another Starbuck’s told me vegan items wouldn’t show up in the mid-west…

It took awhile for me to get to this VEGANEGG by Follow Your Heart. Steve finally found it at the Westside Market, but when unpacking the bags I noticed it was outdated by over one year. I almost gave up on it, since the people who sold it gave us such a hard time over…

This is such a no-brainer. Steve sautéed some mushroom, onion and green pepper, then added a homemade marinara sauce we had frozen. Then added fresh garlic and basil. Open the package of frozen meatballs, add to simmering sauce, cover and cook about 15 minutes or till heated all the way through. Serve over pasta or…

PRODUCT REVIEW: A relative of the peanut family, the lupini bean tastes and textures like half bean and half nut. My first response was no, I don’t like them. The garlic and herb flavored lupini beans tasted like lemon, then I realized it was lemon flavored – didn’t get the herb or the garlic, since…

Whoa. Steve bought this thinking of course that it was vegan. Who wouldn’t at first, second or even third glance think the same? That was the intent. To fool you. When companies try to fool you with labels and advertisement, beware. Companies like Lisanatti Foods are trying to get vegans back to the vegetarian trough….

PRODUCT REVIEW FOR: Delight Soy Vegan Chicken Nuggets In Mandarin Sauce. Okay, Heinen’s Supermarket in Northeast Ohio buys the vegan nuggets from Delight Soy, then they add their own mandarin sauce to it and sell them in the deli. First time Steve brought these home I was stunned at how good they were. I figured…

THE JACKFRUIT COMPANY That’s who made the Jackfruit I tried. Looks like animal meat. Looks like fall off the bone animal meat. But it isn’t. It’s jackfruit. Everybody’s talking about it being the one food that will feed thus save the world. It’s got everything going for it. Lots of nutrients. A part of it…

The beet kraut is milder than the whiskey, because of the addition of the beets. Sweet! I wish they’d take that racist face off from the label of Bergman Ball Park Mustard. I’m going to have to stop buying their mustard if they don’t. I’ve read that raw sauerkraut is a good natural probiotic –…

Finally, the finest saffron in the world – from Iran – is now mine. Many times over the years I’ve used saffron, always packaged in a tiny plastic box on a card, enough for 1-2 dishes. Although it was good, this is so much nicer. The fragrance alone was potent beyond pleasure – something I’ve…

A dollar a package at our local grocery. Who would think? When I was a teenager I bought a Slim Jim every now and then. That’s about it as far as my exposure to jerky. It just never appealed to me, especially when they started making an entire industry out of it. I used to…

I have creamer in my coffee once a week, when Steve makes it for me, on our Sunday off, which really is Tuesday. Last week he brought this creamer home and as coffee creamers go I like it. My first thought, of course, is always what else can I use it for? It’s a small…

I walk into Gordon’s Food Store – it’s a food service distributor that also has stores that serve local restaurants when they run out of goods before their scheduled delivery, or for those who don’t want to pay for delivery (if that’s the case) and for the locals in the neighborhood. Like me. I see…

With a touch of almond? That’s the first time I saw that, right now looking at the photo as I type. Didn’t know that. Cashews are my favorite nut – okay, legume. It’s still a nut to me. Brilliant is the person who discovered you could milk a nut. I love it. One complaint. You…

BY GIA RUSSA. Salt-free. No oils. No preservatives. Lots of restaurants use ready to use chopped garlic. So why not give it a try? Especially since I could buy it in a large jar at a good price – save me some money and some time, peeling and chopping my own. Well, the jar is…

DAIRY FREE. I had my doubts. Was I pleasantly surprised. Looked like parmesan, smelled like parmesan, tasted like parmesan. I didn’t even try to melt it, since it tasted so good right out of the container. The fill is small – in the container. The product is not easily obtainable. I bought mine from Vegan…

If you’re expecting a sweet potato chip to texture like a white potato chip, you’ll be disappointed. The texture is thinner and a lot less crispy. I like them though. Not immediately. The texture is not what I’m accustomed to. They don’t grab the dip like a ruffle chip would, but then the plain white…

SPROUTED COOKIES. Steve brought these home for me to try. Junk-free food they advertise, and I’d agree that they certainly didn’t taste like what most people would call junk food – high sugar, fat, salt, processed everything type of food. But although they call it a cookie, it textured more like a snack. The picture…

I’ve been buying my mother chocolates from Rose City Chocolatiers every holiday for a while now, yet I never tried them. I just took her word that they were good by the way she talked about savoring each one – and hiding them from view, so she wouldn’t eat them all at once, or have…

Great Lakes Brewing Co. makes some great beer, and their Dortmunder Gold is a favorite. It’s one of these lagers that doesn’t really need to be sold on tap. Don’t get me wrong – on tap is good. But it’s just as good from the bottle.

Although this Libby’s Whole Kernel Sweet Corn was packaged for the purpose of microwaving it, you don’t have to. I already had My Immune Booster Soup on the stove, so just added the corn to it. Delicious.

GOURMET PUMPKIN SEEDS. Dry roasted. Flavored. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a pumpkin seed. I generally don’t like seeds in recipes. In the way past, when sunflower seeds were popular, I tried them. Not impressed. Actually not impressed with most nuts, although I’ve learned to like some of them, especially when they’re made into…